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Author
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Comment
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Terri
Windling
Registered User
(4/9/04 9:29 am)
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Re: Mad, bad and dangerous to read!
You're welcome, Jess!
The
Golden Book of Fairy Tales, translated by Marie Ponsot
and illustrated by Adrienne Segur, is definitely what got me hooked
at a young age -- but I've written about this so many times (for
instance, here: www.endicott-studio.com/jMA03Summer/segur.html
and here: www.endicott-studio.com/fortolkn.html)
that I won't repeat it. I just wish I could have met Segur, to tell
her how deeply her vision influenced me...and so many other writers,
artists, and folklorists I have met over the years.
Colleen, have you seen Kate's book Mirror,
Mirror on the Wall: Women Writers Explore Their Favorite Fairy Tales
(Expanded Edition)? Many of the essays therein cover this
very topic.
I also recommend Helen's wonderful essay, "Spells of Enchantment:
The Fairy Tale Cycle": www.endicott-studio.com/fortftc.html.
And Alice Hoffman's Washington Post article on how she finds inspiration
in fairy tales is also delightful:
www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A43478-2004Apr1.html
(You'll have to register to get on this site, but it's free and
the article is worth the effort.)
Edited by: Terri Windling at: 7/28/04 8:28 am
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Erica
Carlson
Registered User
(4/9/04 11:41 am)
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Re: Mad, bad and dangerous to read!
I was a fairy tale junkie. I scanned the library shelves from an
early age and can remember key "finds": the Lang books
in various colors, a book of Scottish tales called (I believe) Heather
and Broom, Jane Yolen's The
Girl Who Cried Flowers. I was a sucker for the traditional
happy ending back then, but I think I loved the stories so much
initially because there were so many women in them and because they
were so unpredictable. Here was a princess waiting calmly and beautifully
on her glass mountain, while in the next tale, a young woman was
walking the length of the world and riding on the back of the North
Wind. Generally, being kind to animals is a good thing to do, but
there are times when you throw the frog as hard as you can against
the wall. Sometimes telling the truth was rewarded, and sometimes
lying was (more like the real world than your parents would like
you to believe). Not to mention the talking animals and perilous
quests and playing with magic.
Mom and Dad never blinked an eye at what I was reading, but I knew
that there was real violence in the stories, and that several of
the stories were telling me things that my parents would sooner
I didn't know, which added an element of pleasure to my reading,
actually. I later found King Arthur stories, Norse myths, and authors
like Lloyd Alexander and Robin
McKinley and Tolkien, then went on to find Shakespeare, whose
plays are full of fairy tale themes. In grad school I was sucked
into medieval lit, largely because of fairy-tale themes, and now,
as a library sci student, I'm still trying to work in the fairy
tales whenever possible.
Sometime in college, I started to consider more seriously the ways
in which women were and are thought of and portrayed in lit. I had
to think long and hard about what I now thought of my beloved
fairy tale princesses, and it's something I find myself re-thinking
every now and then. I infinitely prefer my fairy tale protagonists
to take their lives into their own hands, to be smart and brave
rather than merely beautiful, but (as has been mentioned elsewhere
in the discussion boards), even Sleeping
Beauty holds a lot more meaning than may first meet the mind
and can be read in more interesting ways than as simply beautiful
and passive, and re-reading fairy tales with my eyes wider open
to their possible meanings is a decided pleasure now.
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tacomatawanda
Registered User
(4/9/04 8:15 pm)
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D'Auliere's book of Greek myths
I teach English at the college level, and I have to tell you, these
"big kids" love the D'Auliere's
book of Greek myths, too. When I tell a quick story about a
character, I'll often open the book to the illustration and walk
around the room. They crowd around like kindergartners ... and my
students go up to age 60.
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Ken
McGuire
Registered User
(4/14/04 2:26 pm)
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What hooked me?
I learned to read at a very early age, in a home almost entirely devoid of books. There was a Grimm, and a few other children's books, but I mostly read them because I could, I think. I began collecting books (and, of course reading them) in the early 1970's, but it was almost all American fiction by such writers as Steinbeck, Dos Passos and (somewhat later) Thurber.
Over the years, we had a large family (13 kids), and I became familiar
with many wonderful books. Narnia,
Pooh,
Ratty
Mole and Toad, and others became standards for reading aloud
at home.
Then, in 1994, I took a semester off of work to complete the college
degree I started in 1958. One of the classes was in children's literature.
There I was introduced to Il
Pentamerone, and especially the story Sun,
Moon and Talia, and I was swept away to this old/new world -
and never looked back. . .
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Richard
Parks
Registered User
(4/15/04 7:47 am)
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Re: What hooked me?
You can practically trace a straight line from where I started to where I am now based on one storybook series: The Children's Hour. Done, I believe, by Spencer Press and distributed by (of all places) Sears. My mother bought a complete set of these before I could read, and when I could they were waiting for me. One volume was strictly poetry, another dealt with folk tales from around the world, one was fairytales, another Myths & Legends. There was even one science fiction volume with stories by Heinlein, Asimov, and Nelson Bond. Almost the entire spectrum of my current writing interests were covered. That might be a coincidence, but I doubt it.
http://dm.net/~richard-parks |
LegendMaker
Registered User
(4/15/04 8:39 pm)
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Re: What Fueled Your Fairy Tale Obsession
I grew up with Disney animated features, as that was the only type
of movie my mother would let me see at the theater (until "Star
Wars" came out, when I was 12). That was my introduction to
the fairy tale as a formula. I also inherited Grimm's and Andersen's
Fairy Tales (rather thick, worn out volumes, not little picture
books), but I didn't read many of the stories until I was a bit
older. They were too weird for me at that age. I needed quite a
bit more candy coating. Then after "Star Wars" I became something
of a space opera fanatic and didn't think much about fairy tales
again until Ridley Scott's "Legend"
came out in 1985, and then I started reading fairy tales (and their
literary cousins) and stocking up on all the famous collections
by Virginia Haviland, Joseph Jacobs, Andrew
Lang, the Brothers Grimm, Charles Perrault, Aesop, Hans Christian
Andersen, and picture-book authors like Ed Young (who is a friend
of mine, and through whom I landed an agent to handle my screenplay
version of "Faith & Fairies").
--Christopher Sirmons Haviland
FaithAndFairies.com
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redtriskell
Unregistered User
(4/22/04 3:00 pm)
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re:fairy tale obsession
My vast love of fairy tales started when I realized they were a
map. The only map on the way out of the darkling wood. My early
life was very...trying. The heroines of these tales-from Donkeyskin
to Cinderella- though
they always suffered, always triumphed in the end. I prefer the
earlier versions of these stories where the lady in question had
to grab her opportunities rather than wait meekly for the prince.
Fairy tales were my only source for the idea that a girl, a frightened
girl all alone, could find her own way in the harsh world. Seems
childish when I say it like that, but true nonetheless. I still
revere these fairy tale heroines- they were a bright, shining ideal
to me. To be brave and true, to help the weak, to persevere- they
were who I wanted to be when I was young. Maybe they still are.
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rosyelf
(4/23/04 2:07 am)
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fairy tale obsession
Redtriskell, I felt so much empathy with your remarks. My childhood was trying, too, and my adolescence a nightmare-emotional abuse at home, an unsympathetic school, depression, suicide attempts, psychiatric clinic, you know the kind of thing-and I wonder now if fairy tales could have helped me then. That's really the only period in my life when I didn't read any. I really do feel they could be incorporated very successfully into different forms of therapy-maybe they already are, especially by therapists of the Jungian bent. I hope so.
I agree with you that the early versions are often more helpful, because heroes(especially female ones) actualy stand up for themselves, are feisty, refuse to be passive and just wait for the prince or whatever it is. One reason why for years I couldn't bear the most common tellings of Cinderella-she's overworked, underfed, has to sleep on a dirty hearth and is constantly jeered at, yet when things improve she turns round and very sweetly(and unconvincingly, in my opinion) FORGIVES the ugly sisters. I'm of the opinion one should NEVER forgive abuse. Move on, yes, if that is possible, make a good life for oneself, but don't forgive-forgiveness in those circumstances, unless the abuser is genuinely and deeply sorry AND reformed,is a form of collusion with the abuse. IMHO. I feel much happier with the ending in which the sisters have to live with each other, and no-one else, for ever-they drive each other slowly mad with their horrible behaviour. This feels like justice.
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redtriskell
Unregistered User
(4/23/04 4:34 pm)
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fairy tale obsession
Rosyelf, Thank you. I absolutely know the kind of things you mentioned.
I fell madly in love with Donkeyskin
at a young age, primarily because I felt like I knew her secret.
The incest themes of that story meant it was frequently left out
of modern collections for kids. Luckily, I had an ancient book of
few pictures and little Disneyfying. When I first read it, I cried.
There is so much said between the lines in that tale. I thought
if I could be as brave as she was... Many years later, I cried again
when I read Robin McKinley's Deerskin.
It was even better than the original.
I also heartily agree with your sentiments regarding forgiveness-
the holy grail of modern therapy. I also found "Simperella"
annoying and unbelievable; I could never really buy the idea that
anyone could be so abused and then pretend it was all forgotten
in the light of good fortune. Imagine my relief when I discovered
older versions where Cinderella
wasn't nearly so... sweet. I know I liked it better when the evildoers
got what they truly deserved. One of the best parts of fairy tales,
actually, the rough justice. The more bloodthirsty, the better.
I grew out of that sentiment to some degree, but not entirely.
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duglis
Registered User
(4/23/04 8:31 pm)
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Re: Mad, bad and dangerous to read!
Hi!
Every day when i was a lad from age 3-6, I would walk across the street to my Grandmother's house. She would make me lunch and read me a fairy tale, while i was eating.
We moved 40 miles away when i was 6, and I read many fairy tales on my own. Every weekend or 2, we would see Grandma again, and she would, again, read me fairy tales. She also bought me little golden books of them as well!
Fast Forward to college- In my senior year at the University of Wisconsin, I took a class in the FOLK TALE taught by Prof. Neils Ingwersen (A Hans Christian Andersen scholar). We had many superb books for the class and I enjoyed it thoroughly, from a new point of view.
Now, 16 years later or so, I read them both to enjoy and to analyze. Mostly traditional "Fairy" folk tales, rather than trickster tales and legends.
and there you go!
-Doug
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rosyelf
(4/24/04 4:29 am)
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donkeyskin, deerskin, etc.
Redtriskell, hello again ! I am certainly going to be reading DEERSKIN.
. .and am also having fun trying to locate some of the Donkeyskin
variants mentioned by Heidi on this site.-sometimes it is mouseskin,
sometimes rabbit, and so on. Reading Donkeyskin,
I was interested to realize I was familiar with the prince glimpsing
the girl through the window, not being able to eat anything, requesting
the cake, etc. BUT not with the beginning of the story, i.e. the
REASON for Donkeyskin's escape from her father. If this were mentioned
at all in the version I had as a child, I didn't pick up on it-it
was either not there or bowdlerized. I am very much against the
latter. i feel it says more about certain adults' PERCEPTION of
childhood-or what childhood should be like-than about chidhood itself.
And, as we've already agreed, it removes the very elements of the
story which may empower the reader.
Fascinating stuff.
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judithwq
Registered User
(4/26/04 8:25 pm)
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how I got into fairy tales
I can't remember ever not reading fairy tales. I'm not sure if when I read them they simply confirmed what I already knew to be true--little people, witches, gnomes living under the tree roots of the blue spruce in my neighbor's backyard, my sister as evil as the stepsisters in those stories, and my mom seeming like a stepmom.
But definitely, it was the story of Baba Yaga, which I read while huddled next to the pink radiator of my room. I remember my room turning orange with the sunset as I read about Vasalisa oiling the hinges, feeding rolls to the animals, tying a ribbon round the birch and being given a comb that turned into a forest, a towel that turned into a body of water. I was hooked and it hasn't stopped.
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shyangel
Registered User
(4/27/04 9:08 am)
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what story got me into fairy tales
when i was very little i seemed to always be in the hospital or
home sick from school and i always got very bord. one day my father
stayed home with me and i asked him to tell me a story. thats how
it all began. he made it up as he went along. something about a
lost princess and magic hair pins and a very devoted brother. but
that is what stated me in to a non "normal" interest in
fairy tales. since then i look for any good fairy tale to read and
i have never been able to go a day with out making up a new one
of my own. fairy tales have seemed to always been my life and they
always will be.
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redtriskell
Registered User
(4/28/04 10:19 pm)
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donkeyskin and perceptions
Rosyelf- Hello, again! I don't doubt that you may have mostly encountered censored versions of this story. The thing I was always most captivated by was Donkeyskin's clever attempts to distract the king from his goal. Of course, they didn't work, but every time I read it, I always hoped the celestial dresses and the skin of the gold-producing ass would save her.
Perceptions are funny things... I have often wondered how my percerptions of these abusive fairy tale parents are colored by my experience with my own parents. And, as a weird side note, when do you suppose "fairy tale" became synonymous with "unbelievable"? I mean, I certainly never had any difficulty imagining that adults were REALLY out to get me or just plain oblivious to my situation.
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Kel
Registered User
(5/26/04 4:41 pm)
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Fairytales...
I cannot remember a time when I did not know and love fairytales. I was introduced to them when I was very young and have always loved the idea of good defeating evil even if it takes one hundred years, and Gerda going to the end of the world to save Kay, and Beauty loving a Beast. I still run back to them when I am scared or lonely. (Actually, I was angry with my boyfriend when I stumbled across this website.)
In the somewhat sugarcoated fairytales I was raised on (and am still being raised on since I am only 17), virtues such as compassion and gentleness always seemed to be rewarded.
Which leads to my next thought...
What do all of you think of the heroines' beauty? To me it never seemed to be entirely physical. I always thought it was something that came from virtue, like some sort of inner light that made them stand out, and it was called beauty for lack of a better word. But this is most likely because I was a very awkward little girl and wanted to believe that someone could be loved no matter what she looked like.
Edited by: Kel at: 5/26/04 4:42 pm
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Niniane
Sunyata
Registered User
(6/6/04 12:05 pm)
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Re: What Fueled Your Fairy Tale Obsession
I've been meaning to post on this thread since this first started but that required me to think back and that gets pretty complicated.
Like someone else on this thread, I started reading earlier than most and one of things that got me to read more, and more were fairytales and folktales. My mother would read to me every night and I just got greedier and greedier for more tales so ended up just picking the books up and reading them. Later on, I read anything I could get my hands on, but fairytales and folktales were special to me and a few years along the line from that early start I was searching for every folktale anthology I could find whenever I was at the library. I didn't care if there were pictures or not, I just wanted the stories.
I don't know if there was really "ONE" story that fueled
me, but I *do* know that the ones I remember best all have journeys
into the woods. And I liked all the stuff from the Andrew
Lang books best. Still remember the Violet book with fond memories.
And this gorgeous anthology full of Czech folktales I got from the
library when I was 8 years old. And then there are the stories from
my homeland that I grew up with, which are always mysterious and
nearly always tragic.
There's more to this story of how I fell in love with fairytales, of course, but that would make this post far too long.
Anita Harris.
Terra Mythogene
www.mythopoetica.com
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darklingthrush
Registered User
(6/6/04 6:04 pm)
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Re: What Fueled Your Fairy Tale Obsession
Its hard to imagine a time in my life where I didn't love fairy
tales. But I can remember very keenly going to the library often
especially the fairy tale corner (as I saw it) 398 in the Dewey
system. I do remember watching the Dark
Crystal and Labyrinth at a young age as well as The
Neverending Story and The
Storyteller to which the color of my imagination owes a great
deal. Perhaps the best find for me was a series of books I inherited
from an aged neighbor when she passed away. The series is color
coded for each volume and is titled the New Junior Series (by Collier).
My favorite tales in the collection remain Cap
o Rushes and Black
Bull of Noroway. At the library I often checked out a worn out
edition of Anderson's fairy tales with plates by Edmund
Dulac. The vivid delicate paintings captured my imagination
as well as the copy of Froud & Lee's Faeries
that I also checked out frequently from my local library. I also
loved a collection of various fairy and folk tales from the British
isles called a Fair Stream of Silver. I also owned a copy of Tales
from Silver Lands (which I loved literally to pieces).
I also read and loved McKinley's Beauty
which opened my eyes to novels based off my favorite stories. I
can honestly say that my adoration for the magical, fantastic and
deeply rooted stories began before I can remember. I don't have
any picture books that my mother read me that are particularly fairy
related. By the time I was in 3rd grade though my parents were beginning
to realize how much I loved them and began buying volumes of Fairy
tales for me. In particular the Victorian
Fairy Tale book edited by Michael Hearn turned my bent for a
while towards the Pre-Raphaelites during my middle school years.
Edited by: darklingthrush at: 6/6/04 6:08 pm
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Samantha
Leland
Registered User
(6/9/04 11:21 pm)
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Re: What Fueled Your Fairy Tale Obsession
What an impossible question to resist (and hopefully a decent way to introduce myself)! I remember knowing fairy tales as a child (thanks primarily to Nickelodeon's "Grimms' Fairy Tale Classics"), but my dad firmly believed they would give my sister and me nightmares, so he told us bedtime stories about his own childhood instead.
My fairy tale obsession hit a few years later when my seventh grade
English teacher spoke highly of Anne Sexton and Sylvia Plath, prompting
me to explore their work. The first collection I picked up was Sexton's
'Transformations'
and it tore open my twelve-year-old mind like nothing I'd ever read.
I thrilled at the realization that someone else saw the same tragedy
at the end of 'The Twelve
Dancing Princesses' that I did. Around that time the same English
teacher gave me a copy of Robin McKinley's 'Beauty'
and there was just no turning back. I devoured the old versions
as well as the new and it was but a small leap to Angela
Carter, the 'Snow
White, Blood Red' series and 'From
the Beast to the Blonde.' Further, I am eternally grateful for
the Endicott Studio's recommendations page which continues to feed
my fairy tale addiction.
Anyway, a brief note of introduction before I fly: My name is Samantha Leland, I'm an undergrad at Smith College, and in about a year I will be working on my honors thesis on a yet to be determined aspect of literary fairy tales for which I am just beginning to gather ideas.
Samantha
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Nalo
Registered User
(6/12/04 7:11 am)
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Re: What Fueled Your Fairy Tale Obsession
I like what I've seen of Smith College. My friend Andrea Hairston
teaches there--English and Theatre, I believe--and she's twice had
me and other black authors and editors visit to talk about black
fantasy and science fiction. Dr. Hairston is also a writer; Uppinder
Mehan and I chose a story of hers for our fiction anthology _So
Long Been Dreaming: Postcolonial Science Fiction and Fantasy._
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Samantha
Leland
Registered User
(6/13/04 8:37 pm)
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Re: What Fueled Your Fairy Tale Obsession
Nalo-
That's so cool! Please let me know if you head back to Smith, I'd love to hear you speak. I've heard of Dr. Hairston, a friend of mine had her for a play-writing class ("writing for theater" maybe). Anyway from what I've heard she's a great professor, and now I'm interested to check out her fiction, thanks for the heads up.
Samantha
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